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Vaya con Dios

Justin has been called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Mexico City, Mexico for the next two years (the Mexico, Mexico City West Mission to be exact).  He reports on July 21.  He will be preaching in the language of Spanish.

The Mexico City West mission was organized in 2001 and is Mexico’s 19th mission.  There are three other missions situated in Mexico City (logically, North, South and East)  LDS missionaries have been serving in Mexico for nearly 130 years.

Mexico City is, of course, the capital and largest city in Mexico, with over 21 million people in residence within the metropolitan area.  It is the largest metropolitan area in the Americas and the 25th largest economy in the world.  The population is spread primarily among 16 boroughs.  Urbanization has led to problems with air and water quality, and pollution in general.  Air quality has been improving since 1991 through public transportation and other efforts, but it is still estimated that one day in Mexico City is equivalent to smoking 60 cigarettes.  Ugh.  Thank goodness the Lord protects and blesses His missionaries.  Crime rates, while still a concern, have been on the decline.

The weather is generally mild, with an average low of 39 degrees to a high of 79 degrees.  The area has two main seasons:  the rainy season June to October when winds bring in tropical moisture from the sea and the dry season the rest of time when there is little to no rain. 

Football (soccer as known to we Americans) is of course the most popular sport. 

And, never fear, if he needs anything, WalMart is present.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has twelve temples in Mexico, including one in Mexico City.

To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the temple is the "House of the Lord." It is a sacred building, and after its dedication only faithful members of the Church may enter. Inside, members learn more about the purpose of life and make covenants to serve Jesus Christ and their fellow man. In addition, they participate in religious ceremonies that reach beyond mortality, such as eternal marriage.  Temples are not where we hold our weekly church meetings.

Church membership in Mexico increased significantly in the 1960s, reaching 100,000 in the 1970’s, 500,000 in the late 1980’s and is now well over 1 million, or about 1% of the total population.

I’m sure we’ll learn more as time goes on, but this is a good start.

Justin opened his mission call packed in his [smallish] dorm room filled to overflowing with countless well wishers as well as his immediate family on one webcam, his grandparents Huntington on another webcam, and at least five cell phones with direct lines to his Grandparents Peacock, his McGill cousins, his home ward Bishop and other assorted supporters.  Pretty awesome support system.  They all seemed to enjoy the ceremony of it all.

The video is priceless, I’ve asked him to post it for posterity.

Of course we (his dad and brothers and I) immediately went out for Mexican food to celebrate.  I was thinking of having a chicken fajita pita for lunch today to continue the celebration, but that probably doesn’t really count as Mexican food…more like “inspired” by Mexican food. 

Bryce is fully prepared to give up his most prized possession to his brother so that Justin can fit in with the locals:

Now he’s ready:

“… In a world so large, the Creator … somehow not only knows you but loves you enough to ensure that your call is where He needs you to go to teach the children of our Heavenly Father.”
Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Called of God”

Out of the Mouth of Babes part 2

Jeff:  [explaining something that we’re surprised Bryce has never heard of before]

Bryce:  Give me a break!  I’ve only been on the earth 12 years!

Yes, and it’s statements like that that cause us to forget that sometimes!

Madness

God’s Country was the serious post.  Now, for the nonsense one. It does have the benefit of having A LOT of cute kids pictured.

We stopped at one overlook during our drive through Zion, and Dave decided to pose the kids a la the music group Madness circa mid 1980.  They were a little confused by his instructions…

  

Brad got in the act to demonstrate:

It took a while, but this is what they came up with:

NOW, here’s what he was going for (Oh, I see!):

I’m not sure they captured the vision.  You be the judge.

Maybe we should have tried this pose:

But definitely not this one:

God’s Country

We were in St. George over President’s Day weekend to watch a little baseball (phenom nephew Jackson), bake a little bread with Grandpa, have a little (big bowl of) Mongolian BBQ, and enjoy family…

As we often do, we spent an afternoon in Zion National Park.  GORGEOUS with just a dusting of snow.  Take a look:  

We stopped and hiked to an overlook and inserted ourselves into the scenery:

     It’s powerful to recognize the hand of the Creator in this magical place.

More Olympic Musings

We LOVE the Olympics.

It totally takes over our house when they come around and is the one program on tv everyone can agree on.  Sports we would NEVER watch on tv are suddenly all-consuming.  I even get a 2-week pass to watch figure skating whenever it’s on although I do have the endure the constant, “This is NOT a sport, blah blah blah”.  BUT they still watch.

Last week we were in St. George when the Olympics started.  I loved how all the cousins crammed into this small room to watch the events.  There were bodies everywhere!  The crowd went absolutely wild when the two Korean speed skaters knocked each other out of the race on the last lap, leaving the Americans (Ohno and Celski) to win silver and bronze.

 

This is the video game generation, so they came up with a few ways to make the events even more exciting:

• Elbows are always allowed.  In fact, the more contact the better. (Can you guess, this suggestion came from the football players in the crowd?)
• Spears randomly chucked at the athletes.  Even better if dipped in poison.  Of course, the biathlon athletes will have a real advantage since they carry guns.
• Rolling barrels down the halfpipe.  Actually, I think the snowboarders are probably the best equipped to deal with these kinds of obstacles.  I strongly suspect they also play a lot of video games.  And, while we’re on the subject, “PULL UP YOUR PANTS!”  Sheesh, even olympic snow pants for snowboarders have to show hiney while mctwisting and double corking…

However, Shaun White is truly amazing.  I do not understand how those tricks are even physically possible, especially with baggy pants (I’m old, I know). 

And, “dude” is now apparently the universal greeting among men of all sports and professions.  Ok, maybe not figure skating:)

Bryce was home sick a day last week and we watched a whole day of curling, which is apparently how long it takes to play one, um, round or game or match or whatever.  We still can’t figure out how it was scored.  I did decide, however, that that was the olympic sport I could potentially medal in.  I do know how to sweep, there isn’t any additional balance obstacles like skates or skis or boards, AND I could totally rock those uniforms. 

OK, maybe not these:

But, this is in stark contrast to any of the skiing or skating events, which all have very unflattering and tight uniforms.  Oh sure, they look good on Lindsey Vonn, but not many others.  Even Bode shows a little paunch.  I could probably do ok in the snowboarding uniforms, but I think we can agree those stunts are out of the question for me at this point.

So, look for me on the medal stand in curling in 2014!  Sponsorships now available!